Adenosine is widely distributed throughout the body, such as in the nervous system, and is involved, through adenosine receptors, in controlling various functions between cells. The adenosine receptors are classified into the subtypes of A1, A2 (2A and 2B), and A3. The tissue distribution and functions of the receptors are beginning to be identified.
Among these adenosine receptors, the human A3 receptor is distributed throughout tissues, such as lung, liver, placenta, brain, aorta, kidney, testicle, heart, etc. This receptor is activated by inflammation, hypoxia, ischemia, etc., of the aforesaid tissue. In light of the above, an adenosine A3 receptor antagonist is considered useful as an antiasthmatic drug, a therapeutic agent for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a brain protection medicine, antiphlogistic, etc.
As an adenosine A3 receptor antagonist, Patent Document 1 discloses a compound having the structure of pyrimidine; Patent Document 2 discloses a compound having the structure of adenine. As is seen in the disclosures of these publications, conventional adenosine A3 receptor antagonists have a common structure with the base of adenosine.
Heretofore, trehalose dimycolate (TDM) and trehalose dicorynomycolate (TDCM) are known as diesters of trehalose. TDM is identified as a glycolipid present on the cell surface of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and is known to exhibit immune adjuvant activity and antitumor activity. TDCM, an analogue having a shorter carbon chain than that of TDM, is isolated from Corynebacterium spp. TDCM and its stereoisomer are found to respectively exhibit antitumor activity, and cancer metastasis inhibitory activity.

Patent Document 3 discloses diesters of C7-C21 fatty acids and trehalose. However, the trehalose difatty acid esters are used therein as a surfactant. These esters are only mentioned as surfactants, along with trehalose monofatty acid esters, and alkylidene trehaloses, and with anionic surfactants, etc.; no specific examples of such diesters are disclosed in the publication.
Non-Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 2 further disclose the trehalose diester compound shown below.

However, Non-Patent Document 1 merely discloses applying this compound as a measurement sample for FD-MS; Non-Patent Document 2 merely discloses examining the effect of the compound (glycolipid) on a phospholipid membrane.    Patent Documents 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-158073    Patent Documents 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-519102    Patent Documents 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-171727 (Claim 6, and Examples)    Non-Patent Document 1: Jean-Claude Prome, Germain Puzo, Israel Journal of Chemistry, volume 17, pages 172-176, (1978)    Non-Patent Document 2: Y. Kasahara, Y. Ashihara, Clinical Chemistry, volume 27, No. 11, pages 1922-1925, (1981)